Independent research project 1

DOMAIN: College/Career Readiness

Generative AI: A Disruption that Must be Accepted, Studied, Understood, and Implemented Now

Independent research project 2

DOMAIN: Leadership/Change Agent

The Convivial Leader and Principal Rehabilitation: Removing Incivility from the Educational Hierarchy

Independent research project 3

DOMAIN: Data-Driven/Student-Focused Awareness

Identifying and rehabilitation intentional non-learners in secondary education

Defining the Problem

FEAR OF WHAT WE PERCEIVE AS THE KNOWN...

Too Many Movies...

"All we know is that it was the humans that scorched the earth," Morpheus explains to Neo as they sit in a computer-generated room, wearing computer-generated clothing, running from computer-generated protectors of The Matrix. It was not the first glimpse of AI that humans had experienced, but it was the most memorable. Human beings as hairless, weak, energy bags plugged into a world that was generated for a purpose that was never explained, living a life that was little more than a script generated by AI, hit a bit different as we were poised on the edge of the millennium, and many feared that as the computers hit midnight, the world itself would shut down.

It didn't, obviously. Because here we are, carrying around computers in our pockets, buying cars that park themselves, and having the fat frozen off our bodies. Is it better or worse? A personal preference, most would say, but we have also made the acquaintance of AI. In terms of school years, 2024-2025 was the shy little "hello" from the corner. Teachers were battling it when they found it in student writing; we were finding it in student writing and they thought we would be too stupid to know. But kid, when you can't spell cabbage and you use the word "ubiquitous" in a research paper, we know.

In 2025-2026, for many teachers, it became a resounding NO. The reasons were endless. It intimidated them, it was unethical to use it, we didn't know that it was not actually stealing our curriculum from us and what if it was wrong. Many educators believed that this immature version of AI was sentient, emotive, alive. Some students believed that, formed relationships with chat bots, but didn't understand that the AI we were dealing with was not artificial at all, it came from the most real place it could come from: us. It was acquired intelligence. And most of us have been using it for years in smaller, less fortified formats. GPS, iReady testing, Alexa, Siri - all forerunners.

But no one wanted to talk about it. As a high school English teacher, I had to talk about it. I had to inform my students that they would get kicked out of college if they let AI do their work. But there were so many other ways they could utilize AI in ethical ways to help them with their academic goals. And so, I began to take classes. I learned how to use the educated-pointed AI tools and they were great for me, but how do we turn students into AI-responsible learners? So I took other classes and became certified in AI for businesses and projects, for creative uses, to make art and music. And it taught me something very important: AI doesn't kill creativity - it boosts creative power, inspires creation.

Defining the Problem

What is an "inentional non-learner?"

Background of the Study

There are words for the students that are the focus of this study. Lazy, disengaged, indifferent, incorrigible – and those are the polite words, the ones that teachers use when speaking to colleagues and coworkers. The nationwide school shut-down in 2020 only served as fuel to the fire for chronic absenteeism and school refusers. The American Enterprise Institute reports that, as of January 2024, chronic absenteeism – defined by AEI as the percentage of students missing at least 10 percent of a school year – raised from 15 percent in 2018 to 28 percent in 2022 (Maikus, 2024). According to the same article, while the rate went down in 2023 it remained 75 percent higher than the pre-pandemic baseline, and is considered by scholars to be the most pressing post-pandemic problem in public schools.

While that problem is the most pressing issue, there is another even more destructive problem that is becoming more and more apparent. Intentional nonlearning or school refusal as it is called by Herbert Kohl in his essay I Won’t Learn From You, is a growing phenomenon that has an entire nation baffled.

Objectives

Results

Defining the Problem

Incivility in Education

According to Psychology Today, incivility is a common form of workplace mistreatment, including ambiguously rude behaviors. Incivility includes facial expressions, insults, culturally aggressive behavior, belittling discourse, and countless other means of antisocial behavior (Gulseren, 2022).

Though it is considered separate from bullying, incivility influences an organization's overall culture, not just in an emotional manner but in the bottom line. Food giant Cisco turned to recent incivility studies and translated the data into a $12 million loss (Ted Talk). Accompanied by a noted increase in stress and job dissatisfaction, employees who are victims of or even witness an act of incivility decrease productivity by nearly 20 percent.

This is the dirty little secret that no one speaks of in education. It is an unspoken truth that inadequate teachers and weak leaders will receive positive references, even when they are let go, because of ethical issues, inefficiency in the classroom, and ineffective leadership. A name is even used within the educational arena: pass the trash. Strong, passionate, dedicated teachers have taught beside or under the leadership of this highly negative, uncivil environment for years in silence. But now, they are speaking up in a manner that has drawn attention to education in America for a different reason.

In 2022-23, 500,000+ teachers left the profession. Most of them did not retire or leave to go to another district or school. These teachers left teaching, the profession, and entered the year-round, Monday through Friday, a nine-to-five career track that does not fulfill them in the same manner as teaching did. It does not drain them, make them doubt themselves, leave them in tears, or destroy their family life.

It has been a seemingly quick flip in the teaching profession. But it has been years, if not decades, in the making. In the three short years since COVID-19, academics, scholars, and researchers have pointed to COVID-19, society, families, cell phones, students, legislators, communities, and teachers. But one particular group involved in education has managed to escape scrutiny: educational leaders. The principals who shake their heads in surprise when a 20-year veteran teacher resigns, the superintendents who make heartfelt statements about needing to retain our teachers - could it be that these instructional leaders, those who are intended to guide and mentor, are the reason for the great teacher exodus?

Let's examine the process for becoming an administrator at a building level. There are no requirements for entering an M.Ed. program other than a grade point average from obtaining a bachelor's degree and a teaching license. No examination of evaluations, tenure obtained, age requirements, or proof of dedication to education. Often, the work is done in cohorts or online. It is reading and research-heavy, sometimes accelerated, and the practicums are now built-in. Why complain, you may ask? Isn't the author of this study described aptly by the words just written? Yes, but that does not mean that it is right.

Especially when you consider the qualifications of the professors instructing these programs, I'm treading on thin ice for sure now. But when was the last time, as a professor of education, as a highly qualified expert in this field who is shaping the leadership heart and mind of others, the threshold of a public school was breached in the name of becoming not just a leader but a contemporary of those you instruct?

Objectives

Results

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